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Session 01
= Game date = January 29, 2011 = Game notes = * Last week was character generation for the 4 players previously in the group. * This week we add Michelle and Scott. List of characters: * Jeffrey: Dr. Clayton Russel, professor of Anthropology, Tribal Theology, and Tribal Linguistics. * Brendan: Owen Lynch, thug with geological experience. Big, cowboy looking fellow. Not particularly charming or smart looking. Smokes a cigar. * Josh: Luo Xianqi, a mysterious Chinaman and practitioner of Chinese medicine with a creepy eye. * Xtina: Thomas Matheson, a mechanical engineer with Ford. * Michelle: Evelyn Grey, grad student from Cambridge (dropped out for money). Looks like the girl from "The Mummy" with one blue and one green eye. * Scott: Rupert DeWinter, a British socialite and army officer. About 30. Blond, blue eyes. Largish nose. Has an easy, languid way of moving. Wears a bit too nice suit, like he's about to go out to a gentleman's club. = Game log = Everyone knows about Percy Fawcett and his disappearance. He was pretty well known before he vanished, but is a household name after. The follow-up expedition went in 1927; it was a joint RGS / National Geographic Society / Miskatonic University project. Fawcett's last expedition What the world knows about Fawcett and his disappearance: * Fawcett was an explorer. He was a soldier in the Great War, and soldier in India before that. * He was known for his exploration of the Amazon in half a dozen expeditions. * He found evidence (before his disappearance) of a lost civilization in Mato Grosso, Brazil. * He tended to travel with a small party, which including his son. * For about 5 months, he sent native runners to communicate; he explained in his last message that it may be a while before he can contact again. 2 years went by with no messages. Despite him having told no one to follow, Miskatonic decided to send a follow up expedition. (For more, see Fawcett's Expedition.) The follow-up expedition What's known about the follow-up expedition: The expedition was delayed for a few months, due to funding. They got to the jungle in early August and were at risk of being caught by the rainy season. They tried to go in quickly but they got caught anyway. Even though they attempted to detour around the flooded areas, they still got harassed by natives, lost their stuff, and got lost. They found some petroglyphs, indicating evidence of an advanced civilization. They split up into a base camp and their 5 strongest explorers. They found a city but, out of food, decided to turn back. When they returned, they found the camp empty and burned down. They followed the trail to a tribe of natives, who they watched butcher and eat their companions. They fled with little, save some burned notes and their lives. ...none of them are coming with us, by the way. Dr. Russel knows some of the people who came back: * Franklin Carruthers: He was the head of the anthropology department and expedition leader. He has stepped down since then, and has been out of country on an extended sabbatical. * Julia Vinson: She is a botany professor, and is now at Arkham. She went straight there off the boat. * Roger Letty: He was an archaeology professor; he survived the trip, but he died of yellow fever on the way back. * Gerald Biggs: A jack-of-all-trades security man. * Dr. Hamilton Rice: He is a millionaire financier. Rice was one of Fawcett's long-standing rivals; he has since retired. Dr. Russel also has some of Carruthers' notes. There are some parts that are odd, but that weren't explained; lots of stuff about the the trials he underwent in the jungle, interesting stuff about the city on the plateau, that sort of thing. The bits on the return to the camp and what happened with the natives is less detailed. There was a student (Smythe) who was left behind; he was tortured to near death, and he likely didn't survive. There are some hurried notes during the week of tracking down their kidnapped companions, and then nothing between the time they find them and reach civilization. Brian Fawcett, Percy's younger son, also went on the expedition and survived, but he ended up staying in Pará (a city at the mouth of the Amazon). 9 professors and students, and one area doctor, did not return. The current expedition Miskatonic is not committing as many resources to this expedition, as they are preparing for their expedition to the Antarctic. The two leaders of the current expedition are: # Professor William Moore, geologist and archaeologist. He is a Miskatonic professor and liaison. # James Starkweather is an experienced expedition leader and guide, in Africa, Central America, and Australia. They are looking for new people, especially people who can fund, and will continue doing so (from their hotel room) until 3 weeks before the expedition leaves in early May. The current date is late March. Interviews Rupert is sitting in on the interviews as a financier. Starkweather is 43 years old. He is fairly tall, upright, and well-kempt. He has the bearing of an ex-military background. He's pretty confident. Moore, on the other hand, is more standoffish and bookish. He stays in the background as an observer. He's 38 years old. Owen Lynch Owen did not make an appointment, per se. He just showed up at the hotel, lookin' fer work. He was fit into the schedule the next day. He bluffed a bit about his skill with the natives, and did not reveal how his last employment was terminated -- good, since he shot an overseer at the Congolese mine he was working at. * "Can you take orders?" * "I've had jobs." * "What do you think about native cultures?" * "I've worked above them before. Some of them are pretty industrious and hard-working people." Thomas Matheson Thomas is a supervisor of mechanical engineers. So, why is he leaving such a lucrative job for this? Apparently, he's been building impossible machines from the plans from engineers that "have pasts in common with that region, shall we say". He'll be asked to maintain our plane, boats, two-way radios, and so forth. Evelyn Grey She knows Rupert via her father. She is 25 and unmarried. She wants to get back into the game of anthropology after having to stop her studies to take care of her mother. Starkweather gives her a hard time about how tough it will be in the jungle, away from the niceties of society; he further points out that they already have an archaeologist and linguist. Rupert suggests that she ask Dr. Russel to she if he could use an assistant. He promises her after the interview to work on Starkweather for her. He also sets up a dinner with her, himself, and Dr. Russel. Meanwhile, a woman approaches Evelyn, named Joan Fisher, a student from Oxford who has a background in South American studies and surveying who also got the (sexist) brush-off from Starkweather. Dinner Evelyn, Rupert, and Dr. Russel meet at dinner. He quizzes her on her credentials and finds them acceptable. He checks to make sure she's okay with the harsh conditions of the trip. Over the course of the conversation, it comes out that Dr. Russel's mother was a member of the women's lib movement, so he has no problem with her being a woman. He asks her what her worst hardship was and where her life was most at threat, and she recounts her husband's attempt to kill himself and her struggle with the gun. (He did kill himself.) The next day, Evelyn brings over a mousy-looking woman. Rupert takes the lead in making small talk and laying her concerns aside. Joan mentions that she's known the Fawcett family for a long time, and is well aware of the conditions there due to having heard him talk about it several times. She's done a little traveling to Britain, Europe, and Africa (Algiers and Alexandria). She grew up near the family and knows the sons by first name. She says that she's concerned by how Brian seems to have changed since then. They were more older brothers to her. The Colonel was rarely around and went through hard times when he "lost cachet" with the RGS. Dr. Russel is interested, but Mr. DeWinter is not. She suggests that she could come on as a research assistant for Dr. Russel. She mentions that she knows that Fawcett misled the public in some of his missives in later years, in order to prevent others from trumping him on his discovery. He grew more paranoid about it. After some hemming and hawing, she mentions that she has notes straight from Nina Fawcett's mouth. Finding Biggs Owen goes hunting around the city for clues of where Biggs, the security man survivor, is. He pulls a little charm and bullying and finds out that Biggs came back a little rattled and headed out to Gloucester. There, he shakes down one place to find another where he hangs out (by striding in with his guns). He loudly talks to one of the waitstaff about wanting to meet with Biggs, leaves a tip, and sits notably at a booth. He later gets a napkin passed to him with a waiting time at a park. A grizzled man sneaks up on him with a gun. It's Biggs. He says that Owen's a dumber man than he looks if he's heading down there to that. The kick-off party, and work It is now April 2nd. In his speech, Starkweather gives an outline of the mission. Moore follows up about the opportunities for research. There are some obvious cliques among the academics, the explorers, the blue collar workers, the technicians, and security. Some work assignments are passed out to people in preparation for the trip. Most of these are simple equipment checks down at the dockside. However, Dr. Russel receives a different one. The expedition has hired on Captain Douglas to captain a ship down to São Paulo. He doesn't want to have his name attached to the trip and its publicity. Owen Owen sets off on an unofficial mission to get some gin. Evelyn Evelyn gets some runaround on the docks from the workers after brushing them off. She also finds that some of the cooking supplies she was supposed to check on are missing. Eventually, she gets Mr. DeWinter involved, and they find more replaced and missing goods. It seems like the Teamsters are messing around with us. Thomas Thomas finds all sorts of other missing mechanical and electronic supplies. After calling to his previous business and finding out from one of the people who handles shipping (and getting an earful about how they suck and what to do), he looks around some more and finds some of the missing stuff hidden with the chocolates. Dr. Russel Dr. Russel finds the captain's residence in a flophouse / cheap hotel. He knocks but gets no answer, so he leaves a note. He also leaves a message with the front desk. Someone in the lobby pays attention when he asks after Douglas... Dr. Russel goes on to check on lists for scientific equipment, navigational tools, and musical instruments. A few things are missing, of course. Some of the more expensive stuff was held at the hotel, and some is just going to need to be replaced. Category:Session Logs